Trail of Tears Association, Memphis, and National Park Service officials gathered with TOTA members on Oct. 7 to dedicate a new Trail of Tears marker on the east bank of the Mississippi River. Taking part in the unveiling of the marker were TOTA Executive Director Troy Wayne Poteete, left, Director of the Tennessee Trails Association Graydon Swisher, Official Shelby County Historian Jimmy Ogle, TOTA President Jack Baker and NPS National Trails Superintendent Aaron Mahr. WILL CHAVEZ/CHEROKEE PHOENIX

Trail of Tears marker commemorates water route

During an Oct. 7 ceremony to unveil a marker commemorating a water route that went through Memphis, Tennessee, President of the Trail of Tears Association Jack Baker talks about how it is important to remember that Cherokees were transported by riverboat to Indian Territory. WILL CHAVEZ/CHEROKEE PHOENIX

BY
WILL CHAVEZ Assistant Editor – @cp_wchavez

10/16/2014 08:18 AM

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Trail of Tears Association, Memphis and National Park Service officials gathered Oct. 7 with TOTA members to dedicate a Trail of Tears marker on the east bank of the Mississippi River.

The NPS marker tells the story of how Cherokee people were moved from their homelands by riverboats in 1838 following the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830. It also provides information about the Indian Removal Policy and the land trails used by Cherokee people to reach Indian Territory during the removal.

The marker dedication was part of the TOTA’s annual convention held Oct. 7-9 in Memphis.

TOTA President and Cherokee Nation Tribal Councilor Jack Baker thanked the NPS for “fast tracking” the placement of the marker.

“I think it’s significant that we remember the water route because so much of our work is done on the land route and marking sites along the land route that we tend to forget there was a water route. We forget the three (Cherokee) detachments that were sent west almost immediately after the roundups. One of the detachments had 145 deaths on the way,” Baker said.

He said some of his ancestors used the water route to go to Indian Territory, one of who died.

Baker said Principal Chief John Ross came through Memphis on a boat and three or four days after passing Memphis his wife Quatie died near Little Rock, Arkansas.

TOTA Director Graydon Swisher said Memphis is known as a bluff city, which made it an ideal landing spot for boat traffic on the Mississippi River.

“This is Chickasaw territory. We’ve got a lot of history here in Memphis. The Bell Route (Cherokee) came through Memphis. It was a land route and it came in...where the Wolf River came in,” Swisher said. “We are working on a land route marker just like this one to be put up there some time in the next year or so. Because the convention was here, we were able to make some things happen.”

I think it’s significant that we remember the water route because so much of our work is done on the land route and marking sites along the land route that we tend to forget there was a water route.

– Jack Baker, Trail of Tears Association president

Swisher said other signage has been placed around Memphis to commemorate and mark events that took place during the forced removal of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Muscogee Creek and Choctaw in the 1830s. The Seminoles, who were moved to Indian Territory from Florida, were moved by ship across the Gulf Coast and up the Mississippi for part of their journey.

NPS National Trails Superintendent Aaron Mahr said Swisher played an important role in this year’s conference and for getting the Trail of Tears marker placed along the river.

“This is (a) particularly exciting development here. This is in an urban area. It’s highly visited by families, by all sorts of groups, by ethnically diverse groups who come here and see this on a daily basis. It’s really important that we have that ability to reach so many people,” Mahr said. “You can’t really understand the trail unless you come to Memphis, unless you come to Tahlequah, unless you come to Cherokee, North Carolina. Tying all of these together – these urban areas, these rural areas – that’s what the trail experience is all about, so having this development here in Memphis is particularly important for us. It just raises awareness of the trail that much more.”

The TOTA – made up of nine state chapters from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina and Georgia – met for the first time in Memphis.

TOTA Executive Director and CN Supreme Court Justice Troy Wayne Poteete said the annual meetings are held in part “to encourage scholarship” about the Indian removals among its members.

“It encourages the scholars and professional historians who study our history to continue in that vein and to share their work, and it provides an opportunity for the enthusiasts, the people who study the trail, who work on marking it, to come together and hear those scholars, to interact with them, to hear about their research,” Poteete said. “It also raises public awareness of the removal story in whatever community we go to.”

He said the association does not study and share the Trail of Tears story so that the Cherokee and other tribes who were affected by the forced removals can be seen as “victims.”

“We work on marking this route and talking about this history because it gives us the opportunity to honor their resilience because they persevered. They overcame those hardships and rebuilt the Cherokee Nation. It gives us an opportunity to say, ‘their endurance wasn’t in vain; we’re still here. We’re a viable people,’” Poteete said.

There are around 600 TOTA members, Poteete said, with about 125 to 175 members who attend the annual conference. He expects close to 175 attendees at next year’s 20th annual conference in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Also, at the TOTA conferences participants get acquainted with the NPS and the services they provide to aid the TOTA in carrying out the Congressional mandate, Poteete said.

“The Trail of Tears Association backs up their efforts to carry out the Congressional mandate to mark the trail. A lot of times we look on like they’re helping us, but we’re helping them do what Congress said to do,” he said. “Congress is able to give relatively small amounts of money to the Park Service. Through the volunteer efforts of people in the association, we leverage that funding to get a lot more trail marked than if they (NPS) had to do the research themselves, and if they had to have the personnel to interact with the local officials to make arrangements for the signs to go up.”

About the Author

Will lives in Tahlequah, Okla., but calls Marble City, Okla., his hometown. He is Cherokee and San Felipe Pueblo and grew up learning the Cherokee language, traditions and culture from his Cherokee mother and family. He also appreciates his father’s Pueblo culture and when possible attends annual traditional dances held on the San Felipe Reservation near Albuquerque, N.M.
He enjoys studying and writing about Cherokee history and culture and writing stories about Cherokee veterans. For Will, the most enjoyable part of writing for the Cherokee Phoenix is having the opportunity to meet Cherokee people from all walks of life.
He earned a mass communications degree in 1993 from Northeastern State University with minors in marketing and psychology. He is a member of the Native American Journalists Association.
Will has worked in the newspaper and public relations field for 20 years. He has performed public relations work for the Cherokee Nation and has been a reporter and a photographer for the Cherokee Phoenix for more than 18 years. He was named interim executive editor on Dec. 8, 2015, by the Cherokee Phoenix Editorial Board.

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The annual lighting of the Cherokee Nation Capitol building was held Dec. 1 when Principal Chief Bill John Baker turned on Christmas lights decorating the downtown square.
The event unofficially announced the arrival of the holiday season.
Visitors enjoyed refreshments as well as music by the Cherokee Nation Youth Choir. Children were also treated to a live nativity scene and holiday train rides.

TULSA, Okla. – Oklahoma audiences were treated to a special Q&A with Cherokee actor Wes Studi after screening his new film “Hostiles” on Nov. 29 during the Tribal Film Festival at Circle Cinema.
“The story itself goes on to touch on the basis of the fact that we do have to come together, be it for survival or whatever,” Studi said. “It’s really a matter of survival that we bring our minds together to forge a better beginning as we move forward.”
“Hostiles” is set in 1892 and follows Capt. Joseph J. Blocker (Christian Bale) as he battles hatred towards dying Cheyenne Chief Yellow Hawk (Studi) while being forced to escort him and his family from New Mexico back to their ancestral lands in Montana. The film also stars Rosamund Pike, Adam Beach, Q’orianka Kilcher and Ben Foster.
Christina Burke, curator of Native American and Non-Western Art at the Philbrook Museum of Art, moderated the panel. Also participating were “Smoke Signals” director Chris Eyre and Dr. Joely Proudfit, who were tribal consultants for the film and brought in to the production to assist with creating an accurate portrayal of Cheyenne people and customs.
“We were brought in pretty early on, and we were on set most of the time. I would say over 90 percent of the time, everyday on the set, both of us or at least one of us,” Proudfit said. “We had an actual Cheyenne chief come and do a blessing before we began shooting. And for a production of that caliber to take that time to allow for this culture and tradition to be a part of the process, I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Studi was quick to agree and praised their efforts on the film.
“(Eyre and Proudfit) really brought a lot to the table in terms of authenticity, of not only the language, but customs and other things we needed from the Cheyenne community,” he said. “I think that the film is much better off for the fact that they were there to help us.”
The audience was also given a peak into the choices made during filming, including what motivated certain characters and that the cast and crew shot two versions of the ending.
The panel also shared with the audience that while they have screened “Hostiles” multiple times, there are still new things to discover about its message.
“This movie is a touchstone to so many ideas that we have right now in this country and that’s why I think this movie is so valuable because it’s about the gray areas,” Eyre said. “I keep watching, and I think the highest compliment to the movie is that I keep getting new things out of the movie.”
Proudfit agreed, telling audiences that “you have to see it again.”
“It takes time to marinate because these are such deep issues,” she said. “We’ve seen it eight times and every time we hear something new. We’ve been entertained so much with film and media now that we’re not ever asked to feel or think anymore, and I think we do that in this film.”

VINITA, Okla. – On Dec. 5, Cherokee Nation and city officials unveiled a 12-foot-by-10-foot captioned photo as a mural in honor of the late Anna Belle Sixkiller Mitchell, a Cherokee National Treasure who revived Southeastern-style pottery.
“This project started a year ago as a way to beautify the city and celebrate the historic nature that we have with the Cherokee Nation. As people drive by in Vinita they can learn more about our town and our community,” Vinita City Councilor Stephanie Hoskin said.
The City Council worked with downtown store owners to find a space for the mural and with the Eastern Trails Museum for the mural’s photo. The project was funded through the city’s hotel tax.
The photo depicts Mitchell making pottery in her studio. She is known for restoring the Southeastern-style of pottery back into the Cherokee culture. The tribe’s pottery tradition was not continued after removal to Indian Territory in the 1830s until Mitchell began making pottery in the 1960s.
Mitchell was born Oct. 16, 1926, to Oo-loo-tsa and Houston Sixkiller in Delaware County.
Several CN officials – including Mitchell’s daughter, Tribal Councilor Victoria Vazquez – attended the mural’s unveiling.
“I saw it on the wall, and I was just blown away. It just made my heart soar because my dad especially would be so proud. He was very proud of what mom did, and if he could have been here today we would just be beaming, but I can feel what he would have felt,” Vazquez said. “Most of all, I’m just so proud of our community, the fact that we would have an idea to do this and make it happen in such a short period of time.”
Cherokee National Treasure and graphic artist Dan Mink was responsible for the photo’s look. He said he was up for the challenge of designing the border and selecting the color and font.
“Just thinking about what I was doing and what this lady represented, I just wanted to do a good job,” he said. “I thought the little script font that looked like a paintbrush type effect on there, I thought that, to me, it suited her well. I got the color off that vase or the pottery that’s in the picture. It was an ochre red, which is a traditional color of ours, so I took that color and made the border around it.”
The mural, located at 127 S. Wilson St., will stay up until it is replaced with another notable Vinita resident who has made a contribution to the community.

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The Cherokee National Treasures were honored by Cherokee Nation and Cherokee Nation Business officials with an annual holiday luncheon on Dec. 4 in the O-Si-Yo Room at the W.W. Keeler Tribal Complex.
Treasures enjoyed a lunch catered by the Restaurant of the Cherokees and received $100 gift cards and chances to win door prizes.
The luncheon was hosted by CNB, which officially took on the program in 2015.
“Today’s event was the annual holiday luncheon for Cherokee National Treasures. This event brings treasures together to celebrate the holidays and a special meal together where they can visit and just catch up with everyone before the busy Christmas season,” CNB Senior Vice President of Marketing and Cultural Tourism Molly Jarvis said.
Tribal Councilor and Cherokee National Treasure Victoria Vazquez spoke about the day’s importance. “It’s very important because throughout the year (Cherokee) National Treasures continually contribute to sharing the art and culture and language that they have learned and used for many years. A lot of times it’s done without anyone knowing about what they’ve done. So it’s a way to pay back for their giving because a lot of these treasures are elderly and probably have been doing this thing that they do probably for 25, 30 years. This is just a small pay back for them.”
CN officials spoke about the CNT program and what it means to keep the arts, language and culture alive. Principal Chief Bill John Baker said since the recognition of treasures, the value of their art has increased.
“I was talking to Lorene (Drywater)…and her (buffalo grass) dolls have gone up seven and a half times, which is part of the marketing,” Baker said. “I hope that all of our art goes up in value because it’s priceless. It truly is priceless. But it’s my honor and privilege to work with you and work for you. I’m always there with an open ear, an open mind and an open heart to help you do what you do.”
Jane Osti, a Cherokee National Treasure for pottery, said she came to the event to see her “treasure” friends and thinks the program is on a “good path” with the mentoring program.
“I think we are on a really good path with our mentoring. I think if we continue that, we can continue our arts and language and culture. I think that everybody is wanting to work toward that, that we have a good group of people that care about it,” Osti said.
Many treasures brought their “Cherokee National Treasures: In Their Own Words” books to be signed by other treasures with the opportunity to visit and take photos.
For more information, call 918-207-3503 or email <a href="mailto: cherokeenationaltreasures@cn-bus.com">cherokeenationaltreasures@cn-bus.com</a>.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A nonprofit public watchdog is suing Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter for refusing to release a special audit into criminal allegations connected to the state's effort to clean up heavily polluted communities in northwest Oklahoma.
Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Accountability filed the lawsuit in Oklahoma County District Court Monday against Hunter and Auditor and Inspector Gary Jones, seeking the audit's release.
Jones' office conducted the audit in 2011 at the request of former Attorney General Scott Pruitt, President Donald Trump's pick to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But after the audit's completion, Pruitt ordered it not to be released.
The audit looked into suspected unlawful contracting practices of a state trust involved in a buyout of residents in the lead-polluted communities.
Hunter's office declined comment Monday on the lawsuit.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — President Donald Trump's rare move to shrink two large national monuments in Utah triggered another round of outrage among Native American leaders who vowed to unite and take the fight to court to preserve protections for lands they consider sacred.
Environmental and conservation groups and a coalition of tribes joined the battle Monday and began filing lawsuits that ensure that Trump's announcement is far from the final chapter of the yearslong public lands battle. The court cases are likely to drag on for years, maybe even into a new presidency.
Trump decided to reduce Bears Ears — created last December by President Barack Obama — by about 85 percent and Grand Staircase-Escalante — designated in 1996 by President Bill Clinton — by nearly half. The moves earned him cheers from Republican leaders in Utah who lobbied him to undo protections they considered overly broad.
Conservation groups called it the largest elimination of protected land in American history.
The move comes a week after tribal leaders decried Trump for using the name of a historical Native American figure as a slur.
On Nov. 27, Trump used a White House event honoring Navajo Code Talkers to take a political jab at Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat he has derisively nicknamed "Pocahontas" for her claim to have Native American heritage.
"It's just another slap in the face for a lot of us, a lot of our Native American brothers and sisters," Navajo Nation Vice President Jonathan Nez said. "To see that happen a week ago, with disparaging remarks, and now this."
Trump also overrode tribal objections to approve the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines.
The Navajo Nation was one of five tribes that formed a coalition that spent years lobbying Obama to declare Bears Ears to preserve lands home to ancient cliff dwellings and an estimated 100,000 archaeological sites. Native Americans visit the area to perform ceremonies, collect herbs and wood for medicinal and spiritual purposes, and do healing rituals.
A lawsuit from the coalition of the Hopi, Ute Indian, Ute Mountain Ute, Zuni tribes and Navajo Nation was filed late Monday night.
Earlier Monday, Earthjustice filed the first of several expected lawsuits, calling the reduction of Grand Staircase-Escalante an abuse of the president's power that jeopardizes a "Dinosaur Shangri-la" full of fossils. Some of the dinosaur fossils sit on a plateau that is home to one of the country's largest known coal reserves, which could now be open to mining. The organization is representing eight conservation groups.
Trump, in a speech at Utah's Capitol with the governor and other politicians, said the state's lands should not be managed by "very distant bureaucrats located in Washington."
"Your timeless bond with the outdoors should not be replaced with the whims of regulators thousands and thousands of miles away," Trump said. "I've come to Utah to take a very historic action to reverse federal overreach and restore the rights of this land to your citizens."
The decision marks the first time in a half century that a president has undone these types of land protections.
Trump's move followed months of lobbying by Utah's mostly Republican officials who said the two monuments closed off the area to energy development and other access.
Environmental and tribal groups say the designations are needed to protect important archaeological and cultural resources, especially the more than 1.3 million-acre (2,030-square-mile) Bears Ears site featuring thousands of Native American artifacts.
Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch said only Congress, not the president, has the power to reduce a national monument, something that the tribal coalition argued in its lawsuit.
Additional legal challenges were expected from environmental groups and outdoor clothing company Patagonia.
Outside Trump's announcement Monday, roughly 3,000 protesters lined up near the State Capitol. Some held signs that said, "Keep your tiny hands off our public lands," and they chanted, "Lock him up!" A smaller group gathered in support, including some who said they favor potential drilling or mining there that could create jobs. Bears Ears has no oil or gas, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told reporters, though Grand Staircase-Escalante has coal.
Bears Ears, created nearly a year ago, will be reduced to 201,876 acres (315 square miles).
Grand Staircase-Escalante will be reduced from nearly 1.9 million acres (nearly 3,000 square miles) to 1 million acres (1,569 square miles).
Both were among a group of 27 monuments that Trump ordered Zinke to review this year.
Democrats and environmentalists accuse Trump and Zinke of engaging in a secretive process aimed at helping industry groups that have donated to Republican political campaigns.
Zinke accompanied Trump aboard Air Force One, as did Utah's Republican U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee. Hatch and other Utah Republican leaders pushed Trump to launch the review, saying the monuments designated by the former Democratic presidents locked up too much federal land.
Trump framed the decision as returning power to the state, saying, "You know and love this land the best and you know the best how to take care of your land." He said the decision would "give back your voice."
"Public lands will once again be for public use," Trump said to cheers.
Hatch, who introduced Trump, said that when "you talk, this president listens" and that Trump promised to help him with "federal overreach."
No president has tried to eliminate a monument, but some have reduced or redrawn the boundaries on 18 occasions, according to the National Park Service. The most recent instance came in 1963, when President John F. Kennedy slightly downsized Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico.
Trump signed an executive order in April directing Zinke to review the protections, which Trump is able to upend under the 1906 Antiquities Act. The law gives presidents broad authority to declare federal lands as monuments and restrict their use.
Zinke has also recommended to Trump that Nevada's Gold Butte and Oregon's Cascade-Siskiyou monuments be reduced in size, though details remain unclear. The former Montana congressman's plan would allow logging at a newly designated monument in Maine and more grazing, hunting and fishing at two sites in New Mexico.
Patagonia President and CEO Rose Marcario said the outdoor-apparel company will join an expected court fight against the monument reduction, which she described as the "largest elimination of protected land in American history."